The Dragon's Roost

The Mental Excreta of Michael Cieslak

Happy Birthday to The Mrs or The Real Holiday in February

For those of you who have yet to fully appreciate how lazy I am, this post will offer further proof. It is about time to do one of those “Where I’ve been and where I will be” posts that you all know and love so much. However, as The Mrs just celebrated a birthday1 and most of the stuff which will be done for the next month will revolve around her2, it only made sense to combine the Happy Birthday Post with the WIBaWIWB3 one.

In doing so, I do not want to take away from the actual joy this is the celebration of the anniversary of her birth so I will start out by saying this: I am an extremely lucky man to have found someone as wonderful, smart, and beautiful as her, someone who not only puts up with my crap4 but who actually wants to spend time with me. I am so grateful that she is willing to share her life with me.

We started the month long celebration on the 3rd at the Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse. I will be the first to admit that this restaurant is a class above our usual fare. I’d like to say that our meal there was part of a devil-may-care-it’s-your-birthday-and-we’re-going-to-celebrate-in-style kind of thing, but it was Birmingham’s Restaurant Week (which meant that there were special, lower than usual offerings). Hyde’s is very nice. The area where we were seated had an old boy’s club feel with a fireplace and a table which had two normal dining chairs and two huge armchairs. The food was amazing.

Two days later we met Sara and Jeff Gale5 at the Bath City Bistro for an evening of food and feather bowling.6 We had a lot of fun and laughed ourselves stupid. We didn’t finish the actual match, but when we left the girls had a sizable lead over the boys.

That Saturday we attended some non-birthday related functions, a dinner at the Boys and Girls Club and a housewarming party for one of The Mrs’ coworkers. It was nice to be recognized for being a volunteer tutor, but it was nicer to see all of the Boys and Girls Club members who will be graduating this year. Once again the club has a perfect record. Not only are 100% of the members graduating from High School, all of them are doing so with confirmed plans (college, job, military service) in place.

I’m pretty sure that some of The Mrs’ coworkers were a teensy bit surprised at her “Off the Clock” persona. Again with the laughing.

The following day was the second Sunday of the month, which meant it was time for the GLAHW monthly meeting. We hammered out some business details including some upcoming appearances. More on those as the time nears.

The Mrs got her braces off last month, but had an appointment for some reshaping and a new retainer on the 11th. This was a relatively quick procedure. Since she had taken the whole day off, we decided to make the most of it and went to see Monument Men. It was a good movie. On my usual rating scale I think it was somewhere between a Watch on Cable and See at the Show.

It has been a long time since I went to the movies at the theater located on John R. south of 14 Mile Road7. They have recliners now. Not just theater seats that recline, but actual leather recliners with foot rests that come up.

What a wonderful world we live in.

Thursday was The Mrs’ actual birthday. She went in to work and had to work the next day so we didn’t do anything too extravagant, just a nice home cooked dinner and a pineapple upside down cake.

Friday we attended Indulgence with the Christies. Lots of laughter, sweets, various booze samples, and good conversation.

Saturday I attended the MCHC meeting and got to make fog juice. Yes I felt a little like a mad scientist. The Mrs was at a quilting class, so I spent the rest of the day napping and watching Olympic hockey.

Tomorrow8 should be a fun day. I need to spend some time contacting the people who will be participating in Literature paneling for Penguicon. I have to do a little more trimming of the schedule. I actually have too much programming right now. Then I want to confirm everyone’s choices and make sure I have the correct contact information. I’d like to have all of that squared away before the Penguicon Planning Meeting on the 23rd. I also plan to make a run to the box hardware store to buy supplies. I will be re-insulating the attic this week.

There are a few more highlights for the remainder of the month. Ruth has a dinner on Wed and will be quilting all day Saturday. On Thursday the 20th we will be REDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTED9 with our friends Angela and Grant.

There is the Planning meeting I mentioned, a Kim Harrison signing I may attend on the 25th, and a whole lot of figuring out what I need to do to get the anthology set for publication. I’ll end the month at the Great Lakes Comic Expo with the GLAHW.

1 No I won’t say which one. Why would you even ask? That is so uncouth.

2 The Mrs likes to spread her birthday out as much as possible. It usually occupies the bulk of the month of February, but has been known to stretch to six weeks.

3 WIBaWIWB — Where I’ve Been and Where I Will Be. Jeez, I just wrote that. Pay attention, would you?

4 An amount which could fertilize most of South Dakota.

5 If you need logo or other graphic artistry, I recommend Exit 57 Graphics which is run by Sara Gale. She’s responsible for the new Dragon’s Roost logo that y’all love so much.

6 Feather bowling involves rolling large wooden disks down a double banked track at a feather planted at the opposite end. The goal is to be closest to the feather. The game belongs on the same branch of the game tree as curling, bocci, shuffleboard, and horseshoes.

7 Apparently a bunch of movie theater companies have combined lately. I’m not sure if this is still referred to as the Star John R or the AMC John R or whatever. I’m too lazy to figure it out. All I know is it is very difficult to figure out where one can use gift cards.